The minus order and range additivity (Q2402450)

Bounded linear operators \(A\) and \(B\) on a Hilbert space \(\mathcal{H}\) are said to have the range additivity property if \(R(A+B)=R(A)+R(B)\), where \(R(\cdot)\) denotes the range space. Again, for bounded linear operators \(A\) and \(B\), we say that \(A \prec B\) (referred to as the minus order) if there exist idempotent operators \(P\) and \(Q\) such that \(A=PB\) and \(A^*=QB^*\). It is shown that this condition is equivalent to the fact that \(R(B)\) is the direct sum of \(R(A)\) and \(R(B-A)\) together with the dual assertion that \(R(B^*)\) is the direct sum of \(R(A^*)\) and \(R(B^*-A^*)\). This extends the following result, known for matrices [\textit{R. E. Hartwig}, Math. Jap. 25, 1--13 (1980; Zbl 0442.06006); \textit{S. K. Mitra}, Linear Algebra Appl. 148, 237--263 (1991; Zbl 0717.15003)]: \(A \prec B\) if and only if the rank of \(B-A\) equals the rank of \(B\) minus the rank of \(A\). Applications to the following are presented: weak bi-complementarity, quasi-direct addition of operators, and formulas for the Moore-Penrose inverse of a sum of two operators.